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Mrs. Cub, Chile/Portland Age and Occupation: 26, Astronomer Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Astronomer Engagement Date: May 10, 2008 Wedding Date: September 2009 Venue: Westwind YWCA camp About Me: I'm a small-town girl who's making a living in Chile, with her heart in the Pacific Northwest. I grew up in Southern California, went to high school in Texas, grad school in New Mexico, and now I can't wait to settle down in Oregon! I love pears, hazelnuts, knitting, traveling, running, baking, and long talks on the phone with good friends. I'm planning my Oregon coast summer camp wedding while abroad with my best friend - I'm always at home when I'm with him!
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License & Registration, Please

June 5th, 2009 @ 3:19 pm by Mrs. Bear Cub

Okay, so maybe we don’t quite have our marriage license yet - one thing at a time.

We are, however, diligently working on our registry!

There are obviously a million and one ways to make your registry, and even more things to put on the registry. Ever the joker, Mr. Cubbie intro’d our registry as follows:

“Hi! When we’re not out gallivanting around the universe, we have realized that we need a few basic things for our house/life. Things like sea kayaks and industrial grade baking supplies. Here is a short list of things we would really appreciate.”

Like many couples, we really don’t need the basics anymore. We have plates (from college), we have a couch, we have linens (from college)… what else is normal for a bride & groom to get? The only things we don’t have are the things we don’t really need. Like a two person sea kayak. And a sweet KitchenAid stand mixer. Mr. Cubbie wants the KitchenAid almost as much as I do!

The other little snafu is geography. How the hell are we going to get all the crap from the wedding down to Chile? And if we don’t bring it to Chile, where are we going to store it (really!?) for another two years?

When we move back to Oregon in a few years, we both plan on going back to school. It would be such a shame if all the money we diligently saved in Chile was bled into rent!

Realistically, what we need is help buying a house.

source

So that’s what we’re going to do - we’re going to register for a house.

My super-cool friend whose wedding I showed you earlier told me about an awesome way to register for (basically) money without paying The Man a dime. You do it all in Google.

First - open up a google doc, but make it a FORM

Title it whatever you want, but “Mr. & Miss’s registry” usually helps.

Add questions that are check boxes, and fill in the blanks with what you want people to “buy” for you.

Here, we’ve made different “questions” be rooms in the house. Our guests can buy us the kitchen sink, a wall, the left burner on the stove - anything your consumeristic imagination could want!

My favorite item on our “registry” is in the Living Room - the window Jr. is going to break with a baseball, for a mere $100! I can’t wait to see that bought off the registry! ;)

On the bottom of the page you’re working on is a link that says “you can publish this form here”. This is the URL of your registry. All you need to do is give your guests this URL, and they see this:

When a guest decides to “buy” an item off your registry, they click the checkbox. This sends you an automatic email saying something like “Great Auntie Jo clicked such and such”. You don’t get an automatic deposit for said item. It’s more like a pledge to give you a check. Worried about collecting? Don’t. My friend said that this way worked really well. She said only one person flaked on paying, but they were older and didn’t quite get that you were supposed to pay for the thing you clicked. We plan on including instructions for this alternative registry on our wedding website.

Realistically, we don’t expect for our guests to buy us a house, but we’d love their help if they are willing.

Are you and your fiancé using a normal registry? Or are you having to deal with other factors (like geography) that will make your registry more unique? What’s been your favorite alternative registry site?

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21 Responses to “License & Registration, Please”

1.
Berkeley_Bride
Member
Berkeley_Bride (message)  51 posts, Worker bee

You have quickly become one of my favorite bees. I look forward to each post make make and this one is no different.

Super awesome idea!

 
2.
Guest Icon
Guest
sparkle

That’s the most awesome registry ever! Unless you can register for sanity…which I would do at this point.

 
3.
Cole B
Member
Cole B (message)  448 posts, Helper bee

This is such a smart idea! I love how creative you can be with this

 
4.
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Member
TheBrideConcierge (message)  56 posts, Worker bee

That’s a cute idea!!

You could also try out Smarty Pig @
http://www.smartypig.com/

I haven’t actually used it, but what I get from it is that you can set-up a savings goal for a specific cause (college fund, vacation fund, house fund, etc) and share it with as many people as you’d like. Those people can then directly deposit it into your savings account (it’s an actual bank and is FDIC insured). PLUS, you earn interest on the money in the account, and if you withdraw via gift cards from one of its partners (e.g. Home Depot, Lowes), you get yet another boost to the balance.

Hope you get everything on your wishlist!

 
5.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Joey (message)  822 posts, Busy bee

I wish we had thought of that. We’re building now and it’s so expensive.

 
6.
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Member
jenn-dig (message)  47 posts, Newbee

Oh.ma.gah! That is TOO COOL! What a fun, interactive way to involve your guests and still maintain practicality. I love it!

 
7.
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Member
Essa (message)  15 posts, Newbee

That’s awesome. I love how you picked the witty phrases for the objects, super cute and creative!

 
8.
marigold
Member
marigold (message)  2,228 posts, Buzzing bee

That is way too cute of an idea. FH and I need *stuff* (he lives with his parents and I’ve been living off the pre-possession of roommates when it comes to dishes and cookware for a long time), so we registered for it, but we don’t need much, and it’s a lot more personal than registering at a bank or something blah.

 
9.
Melissabegins
Member
Melissabegins (message)  709 posts, Busy bee

Good call with keeping it cheeky - less likely to ruffle your more traditional guests’ tail feathers!

 
10.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Bruschetta (message)  5,553 posts, Bee Keeper

Wow, what a fun, offbeat idea!

 
11.
LatteLove
Hostess
LatteLove (message)  4,029 posts, Honey bee

that is the most fun, creative way I’ve ever seen to ask for wedding money!

 
12.
Ghenet
Member
Ghenet (message)  110 posts, Blushing bee

Cool idea! My fiance and I are also planning to “register” for money, in the hopes of using it toward buying a house. What a nice way to do it!

 
13.
Miss French Bulldog
Bee
Miss French Bulldog (message)  5,956 posts, Bee Keeper

What a cute idea :) and isn’t Google Docs GREAT!

 
14.
FlipFlopBride
Member
FlipFlopBride (message)  1,293 posts, Bumble bee

This is such a great idea! We already have everything we need, so we probably won’t register for much. I’m contemplating a honeymoon registry though.
I love your descriptions for each item!

 
15.
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Guest
heavnzbrat

super cool!

 
16.
SoonToBeMrsMac
Member
SoonToBeMrsMac (message)  109 posts, Blushing bee

Miss Bear Cub!
I’ve really enjoyed reading your posts since you became a bee! This Google Registry form is a great idea!! Very cute descriptions!

 
17.
mrspaetz
Member
mrspaetz (message)  1,704 posts, Bumble bee

that’s so cool!

we love google forms and used it as our electronic RSVP where our guests picked their appetizers/mains. so useful, and our caterer is thanking us for the neat spreadsheet/chart too!

 
18.
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Member
eastwestbride (message)  39 posts, Newbee

We’re in the same situation. We are from the UK but will be based in Singapore with work for at least another 2 years (wedding is in the UK next month!). So there was no point in setting up a registry in the UK as we’d have to pay for storage. Leave a KitchenAid in storage…are you kidding???!

Instead we asked guests either to donate to our favourite charity (which they can do online, on a special page set up for specifically for donations from our wedding guests) or to give money to an account set up for us towards buying a painting of Scotland (where wedding is) or of Provence/Tuscany (where honeymoon will be) to remind us of the happy times.

However, the information went out to guests a month ago….and so far no one has chosen either approach! At all! Which is worrying, but I guess because there are no physical gifts there is no mad rush for people to buy ‘the best stuff’ on a registry.

In Singapore (Chinese culture), couples are given cold hard cash in little red envelopes on their wedding day. If only the British could loosed up and embrace that option….life would be so much easier for us expats!

 
19.
Guest Icon
Guest
Bremily

This is a really cool idea.. this won’t work for us but I love the creativity! I am struggling with the whole registry thing also. By the time we get married next year, we will have been living together for 5 years and owned our home for 3. We need nothing! We planned on doing a honeymoon registry but then decided on a destination wedding with 50 guests so that seems unnecessary. We are planning on moving after the wedding and really don’t need more stuff. A friend of mine had a gift card shower and notified people in a cute little poem we wrote in the shower invitation. My sister and bf are already buzzing about the shower and I don’t know what to do! I love hearing everyone’s ideas!

 
20.
Guest Icon
Guest
stee

I’ll be the lone dissenter. To ask your guest for money to help you buy a house is just tacky. If they choose to give you money and you put it toward a house, fine.
If you don’t want gifts you’d have to store for 2 year, don’t register.
It’s not your guests burden to bear because you want to go back to school and still buy a house.

 
21.
Miss Bear Cub
Bee
Miss Bear Cub (message)  1,321 posts, Bumble bee

@stee: respectfully, I find it rude to forwardly dissent about this on a public forum. You can choose to not register for money if you choose, but this isn’t the place to pass judgement on another person’s wedding. The posts on weddingbee are meant to help other brides get ideas in planning their wedding. The intention is not for you to publicly scrutinize our decisions.

That said, I also feel morally worse about asking my guests to buy items off a pre-selected registry of objects (that are most of the time overpriced), just because society expects that’s what I’m going to do. Money is money, and most guests buy gifts off a wedding registry online, and pay for it online. My post was meant to illustrate to other brides in alternative situations that they can still have an online registry, without feeling chained to any particular object or store.

 


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Mrs. Bear Cub Mrs. Cub, Chile/Portland Age and Occupation: 26, Astronomer Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Astronomer Engagement Date: May 10, 2008 Wedding Date: September 2009 Venue: Westwind YWCA camp About Me: I'm a small-town girl who's making a living in Chile, with her heart in the Pacific Northwest. I grew up in Southern California, went to high school in Texas, grad school in New Mexico, and now I can't wait to settle down in Oregon! I love pears, hazelnuts, knitting, traveling, running, baking, and long talks on the phone with good friends. I'm planning my Oregon coast summer camp wedding while abroad with my best friend - I'm always at home when I'm with him!
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